BENGALURU:The just unveiled Congress manifesto for the Lok Sabha elections with the Nyuntam Aay Yojana (NYAY) — the minimum income guarantee scheme — as the one of the centre piece, drew reactions, both negative and positive. The New Indian Express spoke to a few leading voices, to figure out the pros and cons of the proposed scheme: Devil is in the details: IIMB Prof According to Sankarshan Basu, Professor of Finance and Accounting at the Indian Institute of Management-Bengaluru, the scheme had its roots in the concept of an Universal Basic Income (UBI), something which has been tried in different contexts with different results earlier.
“The idea is good and highly implementable, the cost is not too tremendous. From this perspective, it is a good idea and can significantly alter the poverty dynamics in the country. However, there are some demons- mainly from an implementation perspective,” he said while explaining that with India’s well known records of pilferage from Government schemes, the real challenge would be in identifying correct recipients and ensuring delivery.
“The other somewhat obtuse problem that I foresee is the raising of the poverty line - what I mean is that with everyone guaranteed a minimum income per month, chances are that all essential and other commodity prices will also re-adjust upwards thus really devaluing the real value of the payout - that is something that the implementing authority needs to be careful about,” the Professor pointed out.
Bogus promises: BS Yeddyurappa
However, Karnataka BJP President BS Yeddyurappa, as expected, rubbished both the Congress manifesto and the NYAY scheme, terming them as false promises. He also raised a tricky political point: “Which manifesto will the Congress coalition follow? The Congress or the JD(S)? This is a ‘confusion-coalition’. Not only the people, even leaders are confused about their governance and dedevelopmental model.”
Talking about the Congress’ theme of ‘Karz Mukti’ (freedom from loans), Yeddyurappa added: “The grand old party has realised the importance of farmers after 70 years. After Narendra Modi’s scheme of giving Rs 6,000 every year to each farmer, the Congress, afraid of losing farmer votes, has started speaking of ‘Karz Mukti’ and ‘Karz Maafi!” adding that the party had to answer as to why loan waivers in Karnataka were yet to be implemented.
Game changer for India: Prof Rajeev Gowda
With the NYAY scheme being the direct result of study undertaken by the Congress Research Department, it is unsurprising that Professor Rajeev Gowda, the Chairman of the Department would support the program.
Speaking to TNIE, Professor Gowda, also a member of the Rajya Sabha, said, “It is a game changing move by the Congress party and it demonstrates how much we care for those left behind. They are talking about it in every village and town and it will lead to a major impact on the ground. The scheme will be implemented in phases and we wish to start right away with a pilot project.”